gunsfandomcom-20200223-history
INkunzi PAW
*Stowed: |barrel= |weight= |justweight= |width= |height= |magazine=6-round detachable rotary magazine 7-round detachable box magazine (Neopup) |cycle= |effective= |range= |usedby=None |velocity= }}The iNkunzi Personal Assault Weapon (or Personal Area Weapon, "iNkunzi" officially cased as suchhttp://www.sadefensejournal.com/wp/?p=4083), also marketed as the Neopup, is a South African direct-fire grenade launcher. History The PAW, originally named the PAW-20, was developed starting from 1999 by Gemaco Elbree Precision Engineering And Manufacturing. The weapon was designed by Tony Neophytou, then the technical manager of Denel Land Systems, as a point-and-shoot grenade launcher that could take out a variety of targets including infantry, lightly-armored vehicles, windows and thin-walled buildings. The PAW-20 appears to have not gone into serial production when manufactured by Gemaco Elbree Precision Engineering And Manufacturing. Promotion of the weapon was done through a salt-and-pepper set made from the cartridges from the Neopup's ammunition with custom steel baseplates.http://www.quarryhs.co.uk/PAW.htm Neophytou left Denel in 2009 and formed his own company, Neopup Marketing (pty) ltd, dedicated to exclusively marketing and developing the PAW-20; the company appears to have dissolved as of 2011.https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-neophytou-220b3424/ According to a variety of sources, the PAW-20 was still undergoing design work as of 2012.https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=352 In 2015, however, the weapon appears to have gone into production, now known as the iNkunzi PAW (Inkunzi being the Zulu word for "bull"), being marketed by Denel. The weapon is supposed to compete with the XM25 and other similar weapons. Design Details The PAW is one of the most interesting grenade launchers (and firearms, for that matter) in terms of both layout and operation. The weapon has a side-mounted pistol grip mounted off to the right of the weapon, making for a rather unique layout. The weapon is also rather unique due to its inertial operation. The weapon's recoil is known to be far heavier than its contemporaries; to combat this, the entire receiver recoils backwards into the rear stock area to decrease recoil to a manageable level. The stock assembly has three switches: two stowage latches and one disassembly catch. The stowage latches allow the weapon to be compressed and also acts as an effective transit safety, disallowing the PAW from firing when the weapon is compressed. Field-stripping the weapon is extremely simple: simply toggle the disassembly catch and pull the receiver and stock mechanism apart. The weapon has a two-lug rotating bolt with a long piston on top of the carrier that acts as the charging handle guide (said piston was an actual gas piston on older prototypes). When the weapon fires, the bolt carrier stays in place while the weapon recoils backwards. As the weapon recoils backwards, the top of the receiver pushes on a semicircular plate, which pushes on two extremely heavy springs located inside the bolt carrier assembly. As soon as the bolt carrier begins to move forward again, the two springs decompress and push back against the receiver, causing the bolt to shoot back forward with enough velocity to chamber the next round.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHbqHx3TLBE The magazine catch is a rotary lever that faces forwards; prototype weapons had their catches facing upwards. On the prototypes, the magazine would sometimes drop out of the weapon due to the weapon's heavy recoil jostling the catch out of position. A hydraulic buffer is located inside the weapon which provides resistance against the whole receiver assembly recoiling backwards into the stock. The weapon's fire control group is very similar to that of an AK, although a small sliding catch is used to release the hammer due to the nonstandard placement of the firing trigger. Compression buffer washers are located in the front of the magazine well which are used to prevent too much deviation in the weapon's firing physics and the fired round's trajectory. The weapon has a non-reciprocating charging handle that locks downwards when pulled to the rear. When the charging handle is pushed up from its locking position, the handle flies forward and puts the first round into battery. The weapon has a bullet drop compensation toggle located on the sight mounting system to account for bullet drop. The weapon is normally equipped with a red dot sight as opposed to a scope due to eye relief issues in relation to the weapon's heavy recoil. Ammunition The PAW uses a proprietary 20×42mmB cartridge in a variety of types. The primary rounds are high-explosive incendiary (HEI) and semi-armor piercing high explosive incendiary (SAPHEI), a variant with an added tungsten penetrator. A practice round is also available, as is a direct-fire non-explosive armor piercing round. Doubts have been raised about the effectiveness of the latter given the system's low muzzle velocity, and Denel does not seen to have any plans to mass-produce it. The rounds are fed into six-round detachable rotary magazines, or for older prototypes, seven-round detachable box magazines; development of the box magazines was halted as the rounds at the bottom of the box magazines would jostle out of alignment due to the weapon's heavy recoil, which would result in accuracy issues. Gallery PAW-20.jpg PAW20-Neopup.jpg Trivia *The PAW was advertised as a "new assault rifle" in some advertisements, despite the weapon not being an assault rifle in the normal sense of the word. *''Neopup'' is a portmanteau of the words "Neophytou" and "Bullpup". See also *XM25 *S&T Motiv K11 *QTS-11 *Neostead References Category:Grenade launchers